On Christmas day iOS and Android device activations were greater than any other day in history, according to a new report from mobile analytics company Flurry. As highlighted by VentureBeat Flurry claims that over 17 million new smartphones and tablets were activated on Christmas day. Compared to the rest of December, new iOS and Android activations rose a whopping 332 percent on Christmas Day.

A jury has ruled in favor of MobileMedia and against Apple in a patent lawsuit involving the iPhone. The jury came to the conclusion that Apple's iPhone infringes on three U.S. patents and some claims of the '068, '075, and '078 patents. The '068 and '075 U.S. patents cover "rejecting incoming calls" and call-processing techniques - or how these functions are communicated wirelessly between base stations and landline telecommunications networks. The U.S. '078 patent relates to changeable keys. The judge overseeing the jury trial, U.S.

The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it has updated its ten-year-old rules on children's online safety but came just short of adding changes that would sanction or hold responsible platform holders like Facebook and Apple, reports All Things D. The new rules hope to tighten privacy and sharing restriction rules for children who might use social networks or mobile apps.

Following yesterday's ruling by U.S District Judge Lucy Koh that rejected Apple's motion for a ban on the sale of three older Samsung devices still being sold in the U.S. that infringed on the company's iPhone-related patents, Samsung has decided to withdraw all of its requests for injunctions against Apple products currently pending in European courts.

Yesterday afternoon U.S District Judge Lucy Koh rejected a request by Apple to ban the sale of three older Samsung devices that a San Jose Jury determined were infringing on technology patents that were central to Apple's iPhone. Back in August of this year, that jury ruled in favor of Apple and awarded the company a $1.05 billion judgment against Samsung, who it concluded had infringed several of Apple’s patents in creating 26 products – three of which are still being sold in the United States.

Here's a not-so-shocking revelation about 2012: games were the most popular software on iOS devices in 2012 according to data released by Apple and collected by Inside Mobile Apps. Seven of the ten highest-grossing iPad apps and ten highest-grossing iPhone apps were games, according to the data.

According to All Things D, Apple has secured the regulatory approvals it needs from China to bring the iPhone 5 to the region, and this morning the company announced a release date for the phone: Dec. 14. Apple will launch the iPhone 5 after it launches the Wi-Fi versions of the iPad Mini and its fourth-generation iPad on Dec. 7

If you have ever thought to yourself "what would happen if Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and actor Danny Trejo teamed up to fight crime?" then the iOS game "Vengeance: Woz With A Coz" may be worth a look. The game turns that "other guy" that helped start Apple into an 8-bit hero in a side-scrolling beat 'em up, alongside popular actor Danny Trejo (Machete, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Sons of Anarchy). Woz solicits the help of Trejo after his wife is kidnapped.

Apple is fighting back against Samsung's recent move to add some of its newer devices to the ongoing patent infringement war the two have been fighting in courts around the world. After successfully getting the iPhone 5 added to a U.S. lawsuit, Samsung has asked the U.S. District Court in San Jose to add the iPod touch 5, iPad 4, and iPad mini to the list of devices that infringe on its patents.

According to this Reuters report, Apple is now complying with local warranty laws in Italy after the company was threatened by the Italian government with shut downs of its local businesses and hefty fines if it did not comply. Last week Apple stopped selling its AppleCare warranty plans in its retail stores in Italy. The paid warranty program from Apple offers coverage after the limited warranty on an Apple product expires.

Blizzard's World of Warcraft web site introduces a new in-game pet called the Cinder Kitten that will give 100 percent of the proceeds to the Red Cross’s Superstorm Sandy Response relief efforts. Coming "later this year" the new pet will cost $10 and all of the proceeds will go to the Red Cross's effort in the North East in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.

The judge hearing Apple's lawsuit against Amazon for having an "appstore" has expressed some strong skepticism in Apple's core arguments. Today in an Oakland federal court US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton expressed strong doubt that Apple will be able to prove its case that consumers are confused or deceived by Amazon's use of the word "Appstore." This is not a new view by Judge Hamilton, who said pretty much the same thing a year ago after hearing Apple's arguments and denied a request by the company for a preliminary injunction against Amazon.

The UK court of appeal was not happy and strongly admonished Apple for adding additional text regarding other court cases. Ultimately the court said that Apple's statement was "non-compliant," and that it must reword it within 48 hours, link prominently to it from its homepage until December 14, and use at least an 11-point font. The statement is currently linked at the bottom of the site and requires visitors to actually look for it. It's not exactly getting a prominent placement at the moment.

iPhone iOS 6 users are complaining that since they have started using Apple's new operating system for its hand-held devices, they have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of data they consume. UK publication The Guardian is reporting that a number of iOS 6 users have been complaining about a "significant hike" in their data usage, which translates into higher monthly mobile data usage bills.

A judge in the United Kingdom has delivered a stinging rebuke of Apple, ordering the company to run ads publicly apologizing to Samsung. This ruling comes after the same judge ruled that Samsung’s Galaxy line of tablets does not infringe on Apple iPad patents. While Apple has better luck in other regions with its patent lawsuits, the UK seems to have dealt the company the most embarrassing of blows.

Samsung got some good news today: an appeals court has lifted the injunction against the Galaxy Nexus, which Apple won in a lower court. The court ruled today that Apple should not have been granted the ban in the first place.

Speaking to the New York Times, social game developer Supercell claims that it is raking in copious amounts of cash with its mobile endeavors. How much cash is it making on a daily basis of its games? According to the company, it is averaging over $500,000 a day from two of its most popular releases.

A "day late and 30 minutes short" would be the best way to describe Episode 23 of the Super Podcast Action Committee as host Andrew Eisen struggles with being sick and co-host E. Zachary Knight rails against the wickedness of the state of Oklahoma keeping his preferred candidate off the ballot. In between these trials and tribulations, Andrew and EZK talk about Kevin Butler being sued by Sony, Nintendo's non-gamer ad, the latest poll on GamePolitics, and troubles at the drive-in.

According to this GamesIndustry International report, thousands of Foxconn employees continue to protest at various locations in China. The labor strike is the result of complaints about working conditions, which workers say have not been adequately addressed by the company. In case you have forgotten Foxconn helps build a variety of high end electronics for multiple companies including Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and many others.

Sources in the supply chain responsible for building the upcoming smaller version of Apple's iPad (the iPad Mini) are telling The Wall Street Journal that Apple has ordered 10 million iPad Minis for the run-up to Christmas. While Apple has yet to officially announce the smaller tablet device, it is widely known to exist because of so many leaks from various component suppliers around the world.

According to this Tech Radar report, Samsung has gone ahead and added the iPhone 5 to the list of apple devices that infringe on its patents. The company has added the latest iPhone to eight complaints it has filed against Apple, claiming that its devices infringe on various patents it holds.

Amazon.com has asked California U.S. District Court judge to dismiss Apple's claim that the online retailer's use of the term "appstore" is a case of false advertising. The request is in response to an Apple lawsuit filed in March 2011 that alleged that that Amazon.com's use of the name "Amazon Appstore" violated its App Store trademark. In November of last year Apple amended the complaint to include allegations that the use of "appstore" amounted to false advertising and would cause consumer confusion.

While Apple is celebrating the fact that it sold five million units of its iPhone 5 phone in three days since launch, the owners of the plant that make the device are not celebrating very much today as chaos and riots take all of its production offline.

World domination continues for the house that Steve Jobs built. In just three days of being on sale around the world, Apple proves that its iPhone is still the coolest cat on the block - at least according to the droves of consumers who continue to buy it. Apple announced this morning that in the first three days of launch it has already sold five million iPhone 5 phones around the world.

The US International Trade Commission has launched an investigation into patent infringement claims made by Motorola against Apple. The ITC announced that it had launched a formal investigation into the claims that Apple's iPhones, iPods, iPads, and Mac computers infringed on patents held by Motorola. Motorola filed the complaint last month claiming that Apple violated patents it holds related to wireless communication devices, portable music players, and more.

While AT&T might be willing to take a lot of public heat for its stance on Apple's FaceTime application, Verizon Wireless is taking an entirely different tact. The company says that it will enable Apple's popular video communication apple on all data plans.

"All Verizon Wireless customers will be permitted to use the data-intensive application with no additional charges, including those remaining on unlimited data plans," said a company spokesperson. Sprint has also said it won't place any limits on FaceTime use.

Having bested Samsung in a U.S. court over patent infringement, Apple is putting its focus on defending itself against phone maker HTC, but it may have an uphill battle on its hands. As SlashGear points out in this article, Apple is not starting out on the best footing.

Antisec hackers, an offshoot of sorts from hacktivist group Anonymous, claim to have hacked the laptop of FBI agent Christopher Stangl, who the FBI has put in recruitment videos looking to hire "cyber security experts." Hackers claimed to have found a .csv file with "a list of 12,367,232 Apple iOS devices including Unique Device Identifiers (UDID), user names, name of device, type of device, Apple Push Notification Service tokens, zipcodes, cellphone numbers, addresses, etc."

Shout box

Infophile: @Matt: Apparently Dan Aykroyd actually is involved. We don't know how yet, though, but he's apparently going to be in the movie in some way.08/02/2015 - 4:17am

Mattsworkname: I still hold that not having the origonal cast invovled in any way hurts this movie, and unless the 4 actresses in the lead roles can some how measure up to the comic timing of the origonal cast, i just don't see it being a success08/02/2015 - 12:46am

Mattsworkname: Mecha: regardless of what you think of it, GB 2 was a finanical success and for it time did well with audiances ,even if it wasnt as popular as the first08/02/2015 - 12:45am

MechaTama31: I think they're better off trying to do something different, than trying to be exactly the same and having every little difference held up as a shortcoming. Uncanny valley.08/01/2015 - 11:57pm

MechaTama31: Having the original cast didn't do much for... that pink-slimed atrocity which we must never speak of.08/01/2015 - 11:56pm

Mattsworkname: Andrew: If the new ghostbusters bombs, I cant help but feel it'll be cause it removed the origonal cast and changed the formula to much08/01/2015 - 8:31pm

Andrew Eisen: Not the best look but that appears to be a PKE meter hanging from McCarthy's belt.08/01/2015 - 7:34pm

Mattsworkname: You know what game is a lot of fun? rocket league. It' s a soccer game thats actually fun to play cause your A Freaking CAR!08/01/2015 - 7:02pm

Mattsworkname: Nomad colossus did a little video about it, showing the world and what can be explored in it's current form. It's worth a look, and he uses text for commentary as not to break the immerison08/01/2015 - 5:49pm

Mattsworkname: I feel some more mobility would have made it more interesting and I feel that a larger more diverse landscape with better graphiscs would help, but as a concept, it interests me08/01/2015 - 5:48pm

Andrew Eisen: Huh. I guess I'll have to check out a Let's Play to get a sense of the game.08/01/2015 - 5:47pm

Mattsworkname: It did, I found the idea of exploring a world at it's end, exploring the abandoned city of a disappeared alien race and the planets various knooks and crannies intriqued me.08/01/2015 - 5:46pm

Andrew Eisen: Did it appeal to you? If so, what did you find appealing?08/01/2015 - 5:43pm

Mattsworkname: Its an interesting concept, but it's not gonna appeal to everyone thats for sure,08/01/2015 - 5:40pm

Andrew Eisen: That sounds horrifically boring. Doesn't sound like an interesting use of its time dilation premise either. 08/01/2015 - 5:36pm

Mattsworkname: an observer , seeing this sorta frozen world and being able to explore without any restriction other then time. no enimes, no threats, just the chance to explore08/01/2015 - 5:34pm

Mattsworkname: Andrew: I meant lifeless planet, Time frame is an exploration game. Your dropped onto a world which is gonna be hit by a metor in 10 seconds, but due to time dilation ,you actually have ten minutes, so you can explore the world, in it's last moments, as08/01/2015 - 5:32pm